Splash Mountain/Uncle Remus

[NASAMan]

Joel Chandler Harris was a reporter with the Atlanta Constitution when he wrote down the tales he remembered being told as a child. He sought to correctly portray the dialect of the speakers, and thereby preserved some of the heritage of these first generation African-Americans. The amount of education or status had little to do with it (the accent, that is, which was a derivitive of Africanized english speech patterns), as it was regional in nature and can still be found today in parts of the south.

As I watched the movie recently, I saw Uncle Remus stand up to and hold his ground against the wealthier white folk. The only time I saw him subservient was in the parents request that he not see their child, not due to his color or status, but their concern of the tales he was telling. Remus saw this was of course their right as parents, and conceded.

Where most of the critism of this movie comes is the portrayal of thes freed former slaves living happy lives in what we consider the squalor of reconstruction. Party of the Disney magic is to seek and find the happiness where and when it occurs. There may have been tragic moments then, and they may have been much more frequent, but, yes, even poor black freed slaves had reasons to be happy. To think otherwise reduces them to a sterotype I find elitist and abhorent. Right now, Disney is listening more to it's lawyers than it's fans. But someday, in the right context, more people will be able to enjoy these timeless tales.

 

[dox]

I once wrote a paper on the Brer Rabbit tales back in college about 14 years ago, so forgive me if i'm not entirely accurate. From what I recall, the Brer Rabbit tales were oral folk tales told by slaves. Many of these tales had Brer Rabbit in the role of the trickster, where he would be evading capture or playing tricks on other animals. Often the other animals in particular brer fox and brer bear were really representing white slave owners. Other times, the stories were more cautionary, such as tales where Brer Rabbit would get in trouble, such as the Tar Baby story. These stories more or less served the function of teaching slaves how to behave.

Joel Chandler Harris did a great service by traveling the south and recording all of these tales. Often times he even copied down multiple versions of the same story, such as the tar baby story. These tales were not racist as they were stories told by slaves. However, Harris created the character of Uncle Remus as a framing device for his collection of the stories as he felt white audiences would find that more acceptable. I don't remember why he fet that way. So he was this sort of happy ex slave in the tales still happily living on the plantation he once worked on as a slave. Even before Song of the South came out many blacks in the U.S. had an issue with this character. I'm not a black man but I can see how the idea of this ex slave living happily on the land he once worked forcefully, in poverty, in some shack, telling white kids stories, can be seen as degrading especially since he has nothing to do with actual folk tales told by your ancestors.

That being said, I do think disney should release the movie at least as part of the collection series, thus explaining its signficance, as they had previously said they were gonna do. That would make more sense rather than just a mainstream DVD release. Luckily i saw this movie during its last release in the early 80s and I do have fond memories of it. But as far as I remember I really don't remember the uncle remus sections of the movie as much as the great animated sections. AT a minimum disney should at least release the actual animated scenes.

 

[jbbraud]

The Stories of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris

Anyone interested in purchasing a copy of the original book it can be found at bookfinder.com.....a book service that deals in books out of print.

http://www.bookfinder.com

Another good book that is similar to Uncle Remus is "The Big Road Walker" however I cannot remember the author